1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Self and interpersonal relations in Japan and the U.S.
| Project/Area Number |
07044036
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for international Scientific Research
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | Joint Research |
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| Research Field |
教育・社会系心理学
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
KITAYAMA Shinobu Kyoto U,Faculty of Integrated Human Studies, Associate Professor, 総合人間学部, 助教授 (20252398)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
マルカス ヘゼル スタンフォード大学, 心理学部, 教授
KARASAWA Mayumi Shirayuri College, Faculty of Letters, Lecturer, 文学部, 助手 (60255940)
MARKUS Hazel R. Stanford U., Dept.of psychology, Professor
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| Project Period (FY) |
1995 – 1997
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| Keywords | Self / Culture / Japan-U.S.comparison / interpersonal / conversation / social-cognition / speech intent / self-improvement & self criticism |
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| Research Abstract |
In this research project, we cried out a series of Japan-United States comparative studies with a focus on mutually constitutive relationships between self-concepts and patterns of interpersonal relationships, Three major theoretical and empirical findings have emerged. (l) We examined patterns of conversations among acquaintances in Japan and the United States, and found that the frequency of positive comments on the conversation partner is much higher than that of negative comments on the partner in the United States, but this trend is very much attenuated in Japan and further ; American Iisteners tend to infer the real intentionin the positively toned comments, but Japanese tend to infer it in the negatively toned comments. (2) In a series of analyzes of self-concepts an perceived expectations by significant others, we found that the self of Americans tends to contain many more positive attributes than negative ones and, further, they perceive them to be corresponding to the high ex
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pectations by the significant others. By contrast, the self of Japanese is much less positive in content and, further, Japanese tend to perceive a considerable gap between their selves and the high expectations on them by the significant others. These two points demonstrate the robustness of previous findings on self - enhancing biases in the United States and self-critical biases in Japan and, further, they underscore some of the important social and collective anchors of these psychological tendencies. Finally, (3) after a series of exploratory studies on the processing of conversations, we eventually cried out a cross-cultural experimental study on the processing of emotional speech. In this study we have obtained clear evidence that verbal content has a much high priority of processing than vocal intonation in the United States ; but in Japan vocal information tends to receive a greater priority of processing. This cross-cultural difference in the mode of the processing of emotional speech may reflect one important aspect of the two cultural systems. Thus, in the United States conversations often proceed with an implicit assumption that what is said is what is meant, whereas in Japan one key assumption in many conversations may involve the idea that what is meant is often never said.Moreover, the current finding suggests that many methods of self studies that involve the heavy use of verbal information may be more valid when used in European American cultures than when adopted in Japan, thus inviting further explorations of self and related issues of cultural, social, and developmental psychology with alternative methods that rely less on verbal information. Less
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Research Products
(10 results)
